Live Review: Russian Circles, Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving, Drowning Horse

The old abode of Rosemount has received a much-welcomed renovation, with a new, house-of-hallways-style entrance to the main room. It provided a suitable level of theatrics for a gig fans have been waiting a long while for, in its ultimate three-hit listing. Earplugs were definitely a hot item.

The return of Drowning Horse steered the night down eerie territory as everyone breathed a sigh of relief that, yes, they were back armed with new material. Their new tracks, being tested for the upcoming album, are stunning, adding much more structure and layering to the band's intense doom-metal sound. The corner of the room looked like a scene from a George A Romero film, all fog and red light, and captured the band's element perfectly.

Of course Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving got the Russian Circles slot; their jazz-metal stylings and epic build-ups are a perfect match. They weren't being shy, either: two of the highest calibre moments in their music, Deep Rivers Run Quiet and Tiny Fragments parts 1 and 2, were flung out with aplomb. TTOL are now an amazingly homogenous unit, and their music keeps improving because of it.

The three members of Russian Circles took to the stage without much ceremony, other than a few knowing nods to those in the crowd who were ready for the onslaught. Throwing themselves immediately into Station, there was no letting up for the next hour-and-a-half. The band seamlessly melded the entire set together, long sections of distortion covering tune-ups in between songs. The crowd was a good mix, although black was obviously the dominant apparel colour. The entire front row was buffered by circles of spinning hair, while the rest of the crowd pushed as close to the stage as they could in order to soak up as much chunky, angular riffage as possible. The setlist was thankfully eclectic, with the new material from Memorial providing a more progressive and major scale-esque edge to what Russian Circles do best: transposing drawn-out journeys of heavy sound with compact, rhythmic bridges. There was a little to be left wanting, with the constricting space of the corner stage and the band's focus meaning there wasn't a whole lot to watch. Apart from the studious attention being paid to the guitar parts and Dave Turncrantz's always chaotic drumming, the band were happy to just get on with it. The fluid and embracing time changes between songs let it be known that they've worked hard to construct a solid setlist, and while it would have been good to see a little more freedom on stage, the quality of Russian Circles' music pretty much adds up to a pretty memorable show either way.